On 13 December 1994, the Special Prosecutor opened up a important trial in the Federal High Court in Addis Ababa against numerous former leaders of the Derg. The Act of Indictment drawn up against 73 of the Accused, of which more than twenty, charged them with participating in acts of genocide and in multiple violations of human rights. The Act of Indictment had as a basis hundreds of thousands of pages of government documents, many of which bore the signature of former high ranking leaders. Amongst the crimes listed with which the Accused were charged were the murders of 1823 identifiable victims, one being the former Emperor, outrages upon personal dignity of 99 identifiable victims, and the enforced disappearances of 198 identifiable persons. The policy of forcible displacement of the civilian population, which resulted in the death of around 100’000 people in the mid-eighties also appeared on the Act of Indictment.
Along parallel lines the Prosecutor’s office brought charges against thousands of other persons. In 1997, the Chief Prosecutor announced the further indictment of 5’198 persons, of which 2’246 were already in detention, for crimes committed during the Derg regime. In May 2001, the Special Prosecutor, Girma Wakjira, presented an overall account to the Ethiopian Parliament of the proceedings underway or already concluded. He brought to their attention the fact that 6’180 cases had been recorded and of these 1’181 verdicts handed down. The death penalty had been pronounced in eleven cases and there had been seven cases of life imprisonment.
According to Amnesty International, which used as its reference official statistics made available in mid-2003, since the beginning of the trials in 1994, 1’017 persons had been tried- of which 552 had been sentenced-and 3’426 others are still awaiting to be brought to trial. In the course of 2003, six of the Accused had been condemned to death and others had received prison sentences.
The lengthy trial against t Mengistu and 72 other senior leaders of the Derg regime came to an end when the court rendered its verdict in December 2006. According to media reports, all of the Accused were convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity, except for one defendant who was acquitted after proving that he was in prison at the time of the crimes. All those convicted could receive a death sentence.
Sources:
- Amnesty International, http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/eth-summary-fra
- Prevent Genocide, http://www.preventgenocide.org/punish/domestic/index.htm | 
